Pic: Caution: road becomes QR code. Notom-Bullfrog Road, Capitol Reef NP, UT
After a full day of driving and exploring, I arrived at my planned camping area well after dark: a swath of BLM land off of amusingly-named Notom-Bullfrog Road, nestled between the two lobes of Capitol Reef NP. I struck out finding a restaurant in Torrey that was open, not a Subway, and not a raucous bar, so my focus was to find somewhere to pitch my tent and to find out how my Jetboil would perform as a heater of canned chili (the answer was “okay, if you use the lowest possible heat setting and stir constantly).
I poked around in the dark, following faint jeep trails into the desert because what could possibly go wrong? Ultimately I found a little hollow with flat ground to sleep on.
I woke early in the unsheltered morning sun and reviewed my surroundings. I’d stumbled onto a perfectly serviceable spot, though after an unsavory discovery nearby (that green/black blob at the edge of the shadows, just to the right of my tent) I was forced to name the area Dirty Undies Gulch:
Pic: Dirty Undies Gulch near Capitol Reef NP, UT
Danger Beyond This Point 